Chapter 12.—17. What answer they can give about the followers of Maximianus whom they have received, they cannot divine. If they say, "Those we received were innocent," the answer is obvious, "Then you had condemned the innocent." If they say, "We did it in ignorance," then you judged rashly (just as you passed a rash judgment on the traditors), and your declaration was false that "you must know that they were condemned by the
truthful voice of a plenary Council."1257
| 1257 The Council of Bagai. See above, I. v. 7.
|
For indeed the
innocent could never be
condemned by a voice of
truth. If they say, "We did not
condemn them," it is only necessary to cite the
Council, to cite the names of
bishops and
states alike. If they say, "The
Council itself is none of ours," then we cite the records of the proconsular
province, where more than once they quoted the same
Council to
justify the exclusion of the followers of Maximianus from the basilicas, and to
confound them by the din of the
judges and the force of their allies. If they say that Felicianus of Musti, and Prætextatus of Assavæ, whom they afterwards received, were not of the party of Maximianus, then we cite the records in which they demanded, in the
courts of
law, that these persons should be excluded from the
Council which they held against the party of Maximianus. If they say, "They were received for the sake of
peace," our answer is, "Why then do ye not acknowledge the only true and full
peace? Who urged you,
who compelled you to receive a schismatic whom you had
condemned, to
preserve the
peace of Donatus, and to
condemn the
world unheard, in violation of the
peace of
Christ?"
Truth hems them in on every side. They see that there is no answer left for them to make, and they think that there is nothing left for them to do; they cannot find out what to say. They are not allowed to be
silent. They had rather strive with perverse utterance against truth, than be restored to peace by a confession of
their faults.
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